September 2013

September 30, 2013

The sort of foods where what you see is what you get and because you begin with the freshest of Nature's bounty, the result is inevitably just that - honest, delicious food!

My first introduction to the both clams and the process of charring vegetables for the wonderfully smoky flavor began young. Growing up, we had a lady who worked in our home. She was stunning & had such grace about her that from day one, Mum called her Sundari which means beautiful and the name stuck for the next 30 years no one in her family or the neighborhood ever refered to her by any other name.

Though she was technically a maid in our household there was nothing maid -like about the way she carried herself. She was very much a part of our family and had no qualms about reprimanding my Mum for something she's done in 'her' kitchen or expressing her displeasure at some of my shady choice of friends during my teenage years.

Finally, when I came home with 'the boy' that I wanted to marry, she asked Mum to 'produce this boy' in front of her - the one who wants to marry 'baby' (never mind that I was 25 years old!) So began his (Mr. Hubby's) interview who to date remembers that not only did he have to withstand the 'Spanish inquisition' from my own father but also from the maid as well as the dobermann!

Anyway, in addition to to being quite the matriarchal figure head, Sundari was also a superlative cook & when Mum & Dad were traveling for work as they sometimes were, Sundari & I would let loose our cooking inhibitions & cook up all kinds of adventurous things - smelly stuff with dried fish and slimy fish and tiny crabs and what not with Mum & Dad being non the wiser.

Sundari also made a fantastic chicken preparation by charring dried coconut which was then ground into a masala paste. Besides that we would commonly char eggplants for various dishes. So the process of charring vegetables is not new to me and comes with fond memories in tow.

However, a decade or so ago when I came across Mark Miller's spin on a Portuguese soup using charred tomatoes, I was intrigued. Once having fixed the soup, I was hooked! It has been a staple in our kitchen ever since and nothing beats this soup when you just want some honest to goodness grub!

September 27, 2013

Roughly the name translates from Spanish to 'melted cheese' and is one of those dishes that can be just that or so much more. The traditional variations to this dish is as diverse as the families that make. Using everything from just peppers, to a mix of chorizo & peppers, this is a dish that can be as simple or as complicated as you make it.

Since I have a potluck to go to, I'm making two dishes of this because it is just the dish when it comes to feeding a crowd.

Traditionally Oaxaca cheese is used for Queso fundido but I have taken the classic and reworked it.

Here's why - as much as I like the stringy cheese that Oaxaca which by the way is very very similar to mozzarella, I don't care for the lumpy texture of the fundido that results with just it.

So I'm adding a good melting cheese from Salvador but Manchego or any of your favorite melting cheese will be good too. Also, a good measure of sour cream goes a long way for a nice, smooth and much-more-apt-for-scooping-kind of texture.

Don't for one minute mistake this to end up like your 'jar of cheese sauce processed business' type of dip. It won't and thank goodness for that!

This here is a chunky, meant to be scooped-up kind of dip.

It all begins with sauteed onions, roasted poblanos, chopped jalapenos, chopped tomatoes, cumin and chipotle, then heaped with crispy chorizo sausage and shrimp and finally our cheeses which brings it all together.

So I hope you fix this for your next family gathering or football party and sports won't be the only thing the crowd will be howling about!

PS: It disappeared quick at the pot luck as well as at home and I had many people emailing me for the recipe including professional chefs!

September 23, 2013

With kale being in season and all the rage with culinarias everywhere, this is a great way of serving it up without all the fuss. Colcannon like many old world foods has many regional variations ranging from the addition of bacon, ham hocks and substituting green onions with leeks.

This recipe is the 'no frills' authentic version however I do deviate from the traditional by choosing to not boil the cabbage (which I think does it no good) but rather sauteing the it in a bit of butter to a wilt, sauteing the green onions with and then adding hot boiled potatoes for the mashing.

The one thing that is indisputable is the copious amounts of butter that
is required to make these fluffy mashed potatoes a delight. In fact the
traditional way it is served is hot, with a crater in the middle filled
with hot melted butter.

I don't know about you but I think that everything is better with buttah and these leafy filled mashed potatoes are no exception!

September 19, 2013

Sooner or later, if you love good Indian food and make it often, you're going to need a recipe for both these chutneys.

The hari chutney and Imli chutney - one spicy and refreshing, the other hot and sweet are pillars of the chutney community. You'll find them served either seperately or together depending on the dish but more often than not they go hand in hand like bread and butter.

Especially popular with street foods and other deep fried finger foods all through the country, they add so much tpo each bite as palate cleansers and tantalizing the taste buds, all at once.

Be it vadas, samosas, pakoras or bhel, these chutneys are like dollops of magic that make the dish.

I certainly couldn't do without these and the home made version are so much more superior than the watery insipid versions commercially available that I guarantee you'll be making these again and again.

Undoubtedly, these delightfully tasty, savory pastries are one of India's great gifts to the world.

There are so many version and varieties of stuffing but I think the very beginning is a very good place to start - basic samosas with spicy potato and pea filling that are at the heart of Punjabi cooking.

The real achievement when it comes to samosas is a crust that is crispy without being hard and a filling that is spicy and tangy. The tanginess is achieved with either the use of ground pomegranate seeds or dried mango powder - amchur.

I have chosen to use amchur in this recipe. Unlike, short cut versions that use mashed potatoes that are spiced and used as filling, dicing the potatoes are cooking them in pure ghee with minimal water until tender and a rich fragrant flavor to the potatoes.

To cut the spice, I love using raisins for that occasional burst of sweetness and cashews for that occasional crunch.

September 15, 2013

When done right they are thick, luscious and gently flavored patties with a whole lot of crab and not much else.

Done wrong, they are as Mr. Hubby describes, "bread stuffing with bits of crab snuck in".

For those off us who live near the Chesapeake Bay, we all have our favorite crab cake joint in our favorite town.

Ours happens to be the Dock Street Bar & Grill in Annapolis, Maryland. What a gorgeous Navy town it is with boutique stores, beautiful historic homes and a wonderful bay studded with sail boats.

And the crab cakes are to die for!

I called up the restaurant and requested their recipe before I wrote this post. I received a trite "absolutely not"in response.

Well then.

So this right here, is a humble attempt at recreating those amazing crab cakes.

And if I may say so myself, well done!

Good to know: The number one complaint with lump crab cakes is that people find it very hard to fry them without them breaking apart in the pan.

The challenge
with lump crab meat is that there is nothing to hold the thick long
flakes of meat together unlike back fin. And since we don't want to add any
extra breading to the cakes, my solution which I think works quite well,
is to add some all purpose flour just before pan frying the crab cakes.

The
reason for this is that during the marination period the mixture will
release its juices. Adding the all purpose flour just before forming the
crab cakes, helps with the excess moisture and binds the crab cakes for
easy frying without affecting the flavor.

September 13, 2013

I don't care if you're a mum of 1 or 14, a sworn spinster with 3 cats because you believe that within every effeminate male beats the heart of a chauvinistic pig or you simply bat for the other side.

Whatever your reasons for who you are, I repeat that there are some things a woman cannot do without.

And a recipe for a really really good, simple, fail-proof chocolate cake is one of them.

Long before kale went from being the curly green bit on our foods that we'd promptly discard to the new 'it-food', every woman knows the power of a really good chocolate.

A new love, a soon to be old love, dumping a guy or getting dumped all warrant an excellent chocolate cake in the aftermath (or before).

Aand when you ride and survive the rocky waves of a tumultous relationship and find yourself married and pregnant with a youngling as testament to your love (or an excellent bottle of bordeaux for that matter) you finally find yourself holding an itty bitty youngling or two.

Which brings me to where I'm at.

My youngest of my two itty bitty younglings has turned 7.

I'm afraid that what I'm about to say next may feature in his therapy sessions decades from now.

Until today, I have never baked him a birthday cake.

Gasp!

I have for his older brother but never for him.

Even worse!

In my defense, his birthday falls in the same week school begins and we always seems to be recovering from our vacation week and so we always end up celebrating his birthday at a restaurant where we end up eating cake.

Therefore, no mum made cake.

(Dear son, please be reading this before you book that appointment your therapist. Mummy loves you. I swear I do!)

But this year was different.

I'm turning the page and I'm going to fix this.

And what better way to sooth mea culpa than, my very best, never-fail chocolate cake. Because let's face it, when you're dealing with some things in life, especially one's own conscience, only the best will do.

And this dear friends, is as good as it gets.

So happy birthday my darling! And may this cake be the first of many more to come.

September 09, 2013

For as long as I can remember, I have always craved my Mum's Murgh Methi.

It is a long tradition which begins with buying bunches of fresh fenugreek leaves with roots intact. I have always known Mum to spread the lot over a newspaper where she would then separate the leafy tips from the stalks, discarding any wilted or brown specimens.

It is a process that is quite time consuming and I would often help as a kid which also encourages long mother-daughter chats over some hot chai.

As I watch her repeat this over some 40 years, I realise that somethings have not changed. She painstainkingly seperates the leaves in preparation for lunch just as she always has. She may be a little slower and in her face I see remnants of the stunningly beautiful woman I remember as a kid. That woman has now given way to an older, graceful and elegant woman she is today.

We're very different in the kitchen - mum and I. She calls me a hurricane. My mum on the other hand never rushes. She does everything with care following the rituals she always has. Watching her cook makes me smile. It reminds me of simpler times when perhaps everything wasn't on a deadline and it was alright to spend a couple of hours slowly in preparation for lunch.

It seems as though in my life, multi-tasking has become second nature. My mother wouldn't dare, especially when it comes to her signature murgh methi.

Make no mistake, she is isn't the only one who makes murgh methi. In fact you'll often find this on restaurant menus and in homes where everything from heavy cream, tomato puree to half the spices from the pantry are emptied into the pot. And the result in my humble opinion, is far from gratifying.

Mum uses none of that. She is a purist and with just a handful of ingredients and her signature technique - slow-slow sauteing, she achieves what I believe is one of her finest contributions to chicken.

September 05, 2013

Ever come across a dish and thought, your life was better because of it?

Well, here's one!

Once I tasted my first bite of Balcahua, I wondered where salted cod had been my entire life and felt a shade of envy rise within me for all Brazilians, everywhere who enjoy this lovely on a regular if not daily basis. Sigh.

I know, shallow me.

It all started with the Portuguese who while colonizing Brazil had to make their long voyages across the Atlantic ocean. And since carrying fresh produce posed obvious issues, bought along with them salt cured meats and fish - namely balcahua - salt cured cod and carne seca - salt cured beef, which evidently is a key ingredient in preparing Fejioda (pronounced Fay-jwaa-daa) Brazil's national dish.

I also placed a prompt call to my foodie friend Heguiberto of weirdcombinations without whom my life's path would perhaps have never crossed this dish. There are many many versions of salted cod splattered around the blogosphere and almost all of which are potato-laden-vegetable-missing versions.

In this delightfully rich, sunshine-bright version, the flavors from the assortment of peppers and olives mix with the rich & briny flavors of salted cod to create an incredibly delicious, perfectly salted combination of a mouthwatering meal.

Don't take my word for it - shake that fear of salted cod, try this and you'll see just what I'm bragging about.